Power Corrupts! (Some Spoilers)

[Mahokenshi]

Well, over the past week or so I've gone and done it. I imported my BG1 fighter, kitted her to a kensai, and then dualed her at level 13 to a mage.

I wanted to realize the character concept before Brynlaw, if I could. Getting a dualed character's first class to activate is a fun challenge (as I found out, but I wanted to enjoy the finished character concept for a decent portion of the game, if I could.

The best way would seem to be to solo. And while I know that the game can be played without a thief, I'd rather not. So I'd be taking Jan along at least until I got Imoen. Also I had always wanted to play through a smaller party with Aerie. A high level cleric/mage seemed interesting.

And thus my party was born; Amelia, Aerie, and Jan.

Amelia Str 19, Dex 19, Con 11 (10 in ch4+), Int 19, Wis 13, Cha 19. Grandmaster in Quarterstaff, two points in two handed weapon style. Wielding Staff of the Magi once I got it.

Well, here are some thoughts as to the journey:

The "always toughter spawn" mod inspires cheese. I guess it's being part of the Tactics mod this would be a no-brainer. In order to get past areas with tons of liches, greater mummies, skeleton warriors, etc; I had to cheese with Vihailor's Helm and scrolls of Protection of Undead. This was especially true after I dualed to a mage and had no warrior in the party to deal damage quickly. There are a lot of undead in the game, I realized. Certain areas and even a couple of entire quests have ONLY undead enemies; and scroll abuse laid them low. To be honest, I'm going to uninstall this mod after I finish with this particular group.

Playing a mage group was fun. I dualed, finished the quest I was on (Unseeing Eye), and did the "scribe all the scrolls after booting everyone out" bit. Got to level 11, and went adventuring again. Having to defeat enemies by relying on Jan's Aerie's and my PCs magical talents was a fun and interesting challange. Which lead me to re-evaluate Jan and Aerie as survialists... .

Jan is hard to kill if played right. Aerie can be impossible to kill. At first I was grateful for every precious hit point my party had, espeically when we had crap equipment and I was only a kensai (no defensive stuff.) However, once I dualled to a mage and we could all cast Stoneskin (along with other spells) with regularity; my characters hardly ever took damage. Unless I got careless or lazy, I would hardly ever need Aerie's healing spells. Of course, this was due to the fact I gave her all the defensive stuff that would have normally gone to frontline warriors (especially dual wielding/ two handed weapon wielding warriors who don't get shield bonuses.)

The Twisted Rune. I have no shame. Well, a little shame. I'm never cheesing it again. Protection from undead scrolls for Shangalar and the Vampire. The Sheild of Balduran for the beholder. I had the Vihailor's helm Simmy read a protection from magic scroll ONTO the enemy mage. Then Aerie tanked the beholder while Jan and Amelia magic missled the poor fighter.

The Guarded Compound. Okay, they're just wussies. I took on the Guarded compund sometime AFTER the twisted rune. I wanted to wait until I could cast Death Fog so I could Get through the first floor summons battle and still have enough steam for the main event. well, we death fogged, then took care of the deamon. Our only buffs before the second floor were Haste and Improved Invisibility. As soon as we arrived on the second floor, Aerie (wearing the Robe of Vecna) cast Greater Malasion, while Jan and Ameilia both cast Emotion: Hopelessness. The mage, thief, and the two large demi-human fighters all failed their save. What's better is that the two demihuman fighters prevented Koshi from reaching us ... while Amelia and Aerie could still reach him with spells. The very next round Jan Dominated the Cleric, and all together we beat up Koshi. Then we killed the two fighters and the thief, and then the no-longer-dominated cleric. We almost forgot about the mage (he was kind of "hidden" from view where he had fallen), but he didn't last too long. I hardly think this to be cheese. It was more of three smart spellcasters showing a fighter-heavy party why magic needs to be respected.


Activating my Kensai class. Wow. Just wow. The Windspear Hills quest I left to last. I left Firkraag alive and went to go collect my quest reward, and Amelia leveled up to 14th level mage. Yay. So I went back to challange the big lout (taking out the Greater Wolfwares I had to sneak past before.) Well. Remove Fear, Protection from Magic Weapons, Improved Haste, and Kai. He went down in three rounds. And one round of that was my recovering from a wingbuff. Aerie and Jan sat in a corner playing checkers. I then went to the Mindflayer place in the sewers. With my rock bottom saves (thanks to ring of protection, ring of gaxx, staff of the magi, cloak of balduran, belt of inertial barrier, necklace of form stability), insane AC (-11! I got my apprencices to make a certain robe for me), and naturally high Int, I cleared the place out. Without buffing except for improved haste. The big boss fight in Brynlaw was a cakewalk. Imoen just hung around, waiting vainly for the need to cast Breach, and Aerie got off one whole entire magic missle.

Edit. I am truly beginning to love a party where all the members can cast Stoneskin. Sure, there are other sources of damage, and dispelling Stoneskin is easily doable (especially when cast by someone who is rather low level, as multi class characters are wont to be.) But it sure beats Yoshimo taking 50 points of damage every time I nod off a bit during a battle with orcs, or Minsc taking 70 points of damage against goblins in one fight (yes, I've had both happen. And yes I was TRYING to fight back. And no I don't play on Insane. Core Rules for me.) I suppose that love would extend to Ironskins, but Jeheria is one of the NPCs who I dislike the most (her personality really grates. She insists we go on most of the quests that result in reputation boosts (Unseeing Eye, Trademeet, Shadow Lair, etc) and then will whinge about it later.) And Cernd is the only genuinely useless NPCs in the game. Okay, he's better than ctrl-Jing Neeber. But I'm not the only one to think so. Nalia isn't invincible against Torgal, nor is Valygar invincible against Lavok, nor Mazzy against the Shadow Lord. But Cernd? The developers obviously felt he needed a boost. A huge, hand of god the-tyrannasour-chases-you-back-to-the-road boost. Er, I'm rambling. Moving on.

All in all, it was an interesting experience. But I don't see myself playing through that way again. High level duals just don't seem to be my style. Throne of Bhall (minus watcher's keep) is really only a lazy Sunday's worth of gaming; and I much prefer having my character concept far earlier on. To those of you who play an Assassin (24) - Fighter, I salute you. I also wonder what proportion fo the game you have left after your character reaches Assassin (24) - Fighter (25), but that's just me.

Hmm. I'm writing like the game is over; and I'm still only in Chapter 4! Not sure if I'll finish though. I walked through the Spellhold maze (toughest spawn enemies and all) as if it wasn't even there. I have a couple other character concepts I'd like to try. Playing through a character THIS powerful just doesn't seem like it would be as much fun. (I suppose I could have grandmastered in a weapon besides SotM, but I thought it would be cool to use it as a frontline weapon... .) Playing a mage with a lot of hps was kinda fun, and I'm thinking about that Berserker (9) - Mage after all.

By the way, I have also installed parts of the Quest Pack for the first time, and I really like the new enemy AI behavior and new quests. Having spiders, etc occasionally target my back line (Jan!) kept me on my toes; and the new quests were well done and quite welcome. For my next game, I'll probably install even more of it (area improvements, boss improvements, etc.)

[ 02-03-2007, 05:54 AM: Message edited by: Mahokenshi ]

[Armen]

interesting - thanks for the report [img]smile.gif[/img]

i often abandon games after i get out of the asylum and really often abandon soon after a high-level dual reactivates (often this is a similar time!)

seems to be one of those things . . .

[ 02-03-2007, 05:03 PM: Message edited by: Armen ]

[Pirengle]

Bleah. You should try a kensage solo. At least you have Knock to get you past locked doors.

I preferred Tougher Random Encounters over Toughest Random Spawn. That way you're not just steamrolling over the thugs that jump your party.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by Pirengle: Bleah. You should try a kensage solo. At least you have Knock to get you past locked doors. I preferred Tougher Random Encounters over Toughest Random Spawn. That way you're not just steamrolling over the thugs that jump your party.

Actually... as I have already demonstrated multiple times... Tougher Random Encounters is a joke. Imoen would have a tougher time against a Slime Mold than one of these encounters.

Cheers.

[Pirengle]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: Actually... as I have already demonstrated multiple times... Tougher Random Encounters is a joke. Imoen would have a tougher time against a Slime Mold than one of these encounters.

I dunno...my solo wild mage had a pretty tough time against the balanced packs in Athkatla. Then again, it was a wild mage! Something about a smart mage and smart cleric working in tandem with disappearing/reappearing thieves.

Good to know you're still alive. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by Pirengle: I dunno...my solo wild mage had a pretty tough time against the balanced packs in Athkatla. Then again, it was a wild mage! Something about a smart mage and smart cleric working in tandem with disappearing/reappearing thieves. Good to know you're still alive. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Snarky]
I would like to believe that I won't pass away before the age of 25.
[/Snarky]

If you are using a solo Wild Mage, consider the usage of Death Spell. If things get hairy, you can always utilise a Potion of Invisibility( or if you want to risk it, a casting of Invisibility).

Items that grant you invisibility are also golden. As a soloist, it is fairly easy to protect yourself. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Cheers.